Only 20% of Gen Y women say that they want to follow in the footsteps of the female leaders in their workplaces, says new research from Bentley University. The survey of 1000 college-educated Millennials found that while 84% of respondents said that they could identify at least one female leader at their job, most didn't want to emulate her career path.

This rejection of the current iteration of female corporate achievement also extends to attitudes toward mentorship; only 5.5% of respondents claimed that a colleague, supervisor or role model was their primary source of career cheerleading, with spouses/partners or parents much more likely to be identified as key career supporters. And only 25% of Millennials of both genders give credit to a manager or supervisor for encouraging them to assume a leadership role at work.

"These Millennials are very clear about what is important in their lives, which may indeed be different than what is important to their leaders. They want to find a different path to leadership that allows time for personal lives. Yes, they are rejecting the current paradigm of the corporate career path along with the way work is done. They will work hard and be loyal, but they want respect for their personal values in return," says Susan Adams, the lead researcher on this project, professor of management at Bentley University and senior director of Bentley's Center for Women and Business.

And indeed, her research points to Millennials who are willing to make certain concessions for on-the-job advancement - for example, 84% would agree to a take a lateral move to gain beneficial work experience and 69% would be willing to travel frequently for work - but who also prioritize the intrinsic satisfaction they expect their careers to provide over the bottom line, with 84% claiming knowing that they're making a difference in the world is more important to them than professional recognition and 79% rating a positive work environment as more important than the size of their pay check.

The research also highlights a breakdown in how corporate leaders are providing guidance and support to female subordinates and how these Millennial subordinates are receiving their overtures and the tangible effects this support has on career development. Only 35% of female survey respondents said they "often" received positive recognition at work, with women more likely to receive verbal praise and men more than twice as likely to say they received recognition in the form of financial compensation and almost twice as likely as women to say they received promotions or special assignments as a form of positive recognition. These findings echo research conducted by Catalyst in 2010 that found that not only did mentored men win more promotions than women, their promotions came with greater financial compensation - 21% increases to women's 2%. Catalyst's research also found that mentoring alone was not sufficient to close the gender wage gap between high-performing white collar workers. Despite these disheartening statistics, Adams believes that the mentoring model can and should be saved.

"Mentorship is not dead. In fact, I believe our findings suggest it needs to be increased. Young women need more models so they have more options to consider. They need mentors who care about their career aspirations to provide honest feedback and support for continuous learning and political navigation. They also need mentors to serve as sponsors who will advocate for the new career experiences they seek. I say career experiences not promotions because they may want to postpone a promotion in favor of a new lateral experience if they feel a promotion would impede on family time. Our data support the idea that women could be more ambitious than men in believing that career and life aspirations can co-exist. Men and women have similarly high career aspirations but women add higher family aspirations to the mix."

But do young women see their ambitions as achievable vs. purely aspirational? While 43% of female survey respondents with children and 33% of those without said they planned to be just successful as the female leaders in their workplaces - albeit by following a different path - 54% of all female Millennials also still believe the gender ambition gap explains the relative lack of female c-suite executives, despite research showing that young women now outpace men when it comes to valuing high-achieving careers. For her part, Adams is confident that Millennial women will be able to surmount the work-life tensions that plague their Baby Boomer predecessors when it comes to structuring their own careers in a way that reflects their priorities and pushing for changes in the workplace to accommodate their values. "Time will tell whether this is the generation that transforms Corporate America. While they may mellow a bit during the family years, there are many signs suggesting that they won’t give up on their dreams to have it all and to help others."

Ask the Sheryl Sandbergs, Anne-Marie Slaughters and Hillary Clintons of the world and it's very likely that they were singing exactly the same tune at 25. It may benefit the kids to start paying attention after all.